How to quit overeating and binge eating

Quitting overeating can be achieved through adjusting dietary structure, improving emotional management, establishing regular sleep patterns, seeking professional help, and cultivating alternative habits. Overeating is usually caused by psychological stress, rebounding from dieting, hormonal imbalances, environmental factors, family genetics, and other factors.

1. Adjust dietary structure:

Avoid retaliatory eating caused by extreme dieting, ensure three meals are timed and quantified daily, and increase protein and dietary fiber intake. Choose low glycemic index foods such as oats and brown rice, and add nuts or Greek yogurt as a healthy snack between meals to reduce the stimulation of refined sugar and fried foods.

2. Improve emotional management:

Record emotional changes during eating through mindfulness meditation, identify negative emotions such as anxiety and loneliness that trigger overeating. Try to replace emotional eating with exercise, painting, or social activities, and if necessary, engage in cognitive-behavioral therapy to break the vicious cycle of "emotion binge eating guilt".

3. Establish a regular sleep schedule:

Lack of sleep can lead to increased levels of ghrelin, so it is important to ensure 7-8 hours of sleep per day. Fixed meal schedule to avoid excessive hunger, stop eating 3 hours before bedtime. It is recommended to use small-sized tableware to control single intake, and focus on chewing more than 20 times when eating.

4. Seek professional help:

If binge eating behavior persists for more than 3 months and cannot be controlled, seek medical attention, which may be accompanied by bulimia nervosa or depression. Doctors will evaluate whether to prescribe medications such as fluoxetine to regulate serotonin, nutritionists can develop personalized dietary plans, and psychological therapy can improve body image disorders.

5. Cultivate substitution habits:

Delay the urge to eat for 15 minutes and engage in brisk walking or deep breathing during this period. Prepare low calorie alternatives such as sugar free gum and mint tea, and clean up high calorie snacks at home. Join a mutual aid group to gain social support and enhance self-monitoring by keeping a food diary. The implementation phase of SEP can start with environmental renovation, storing snacks in opaque containers to avoid eating while watching TV. Perform 30 minute aerobic exercises such as swimming and cycling three times a week to regulate endorphin secretion and learn to distinguish between physiological hunger and emotional appetite. It is recommended to choose foods rich in tryptophan, such as bananas and milk, to help stabilize emotions and avoid alcohol consumption that can lower self-control. Record successful cases of overcoming overeating to enhance confidence, and weight recovery should be controlled within 2-3 kilograms per month. Long term recurrent episodes or accompanied by emetic behavior require joint diagnosis and treatment in gastroenterology and clinical psychology.